Reuters World News Highlights 1805 GMT May 1

May 01, 2012|Reuters

TOP STORIES

-----------

LONDON - Rupert Murdoch is unfit to run a majorinternational company, British lawmakers said on Tuesday,finding him responsible for a culture of illegal phone hackingthat has convulsed his News Corporation media empire.

- - - -

ATHENS - Workers across southern Europe protested againstspending cuts in May Day rallies on Tuesday, before weekendelections in Greece and France where voters are expected topunish leaders for austerity.

- - - -

NEW YORK - Occupy Wall Street's call for a general strike tomark International Workers Day got off to a slow start onTuesday, with sparse gatherings at a handful of spots around arainy New York City.

- - - -

WASHINGTON/BEIJING - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clintonleft on Monday on a high-stakes trip to Beijing, where a blinddissident is reportedly holed up in the U.S. embassy in a dramathreatening to overshadow top-level meetings between the twogovernments.

- - - -

MEXICO CITY - A strong earthquake was felt in Mexico City onTuesday morning but there were no immediate reports of damage.

- - - -

YANGON - Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi agreedon Monday to end her party's boycott of parliament, settingaside her first major dispute with the government since winningby-elections and clearing the way for what could be anacceleration of reforms.

- - - -

NEW YORK - Republican Mitt Romney accused President BarackObama of politicizing the killing of Osama bin Laden as thefirst anniversary of the daring raid dominated U.S. presidentialpolitics.

- - - -

BEIRUT - Violence erupted in two Syrian provinces onTuesday, with a rights group reporting 10 civilians dead in anarmy mortar attack and 12 soldiers killed in a fire-fight withrebel gunmen as U.N. monitors sought to shore up a shakyceasefire.

- - - -

PARIS - French far-right leader Marine Le Pen delivered afurther blow on Tuesday to President Nicolas Sarkozy'sre-election hopes by refusing to endorse him and telling her sixmillion supporters to make their own choice in Sunday's ballot.

- - - -

KANO, Nigeria - Nigerian forces raided the hideout ofIslamist militants in Kano on Tuesday, killing the suspectedmastermind of an attack on Christian worshippers, in a gunbattle that lasted several hours in the main northern city.

- - - -

BAMAKO - Soldiers from Mali's ruling junta overran the mainbarracks of the presidential guard in the capital Bamako onTuesday, striking a heavy blow to the loyalist unit that hasbeen fighting since Monday to reverse a March coup.

- - - -

JUBA - South Sudan accused Sudan of launching a groundattack in an oil region of the newly independent state onTuesday and said it was preparing to strike back, in risingtension that shows no sign of abating.

- - - -

BEIJING - A woman at the centre of China's biggest politicalscandal in two decades, wife of deposed political leader BoXilai, had once dressed as a military commander last year in abizarre episode that shines new light on the collapse of Bo'sinner circle.